The Daily Caller reported Wednesday that Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, claims that since Donald Trump became President of the United States, thirty-five mosques around the country have been attacked. Ellison was, as will come as a surprise to no one familiar with his career, lying.

The Caller noted that in his tweet claiming this, “Ellison links to a Buzzfeed article that claims there have been around 35 ‘incidents of threats, vandalism and arson at U.S. mosques since January.’ The figure is roughly based on an outdated statistic mentioned in a March press release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).”

Many of these “hate crimes” were just crimes: “The ACLU listed several burglaries in Alabama that targeted mosque donation boxes. But according to a police statement, authorities found ‘no evidence that these crimes are hate crime related.’ Another example involves a 16-year-old boy who set fire to a mosque, but authorities do not believe the arson was a hate crime. The ACLU also lists the murder of a young Muslim woman outside a mosque that occurred Sunday. Police currently believe the crime was a ‘road rage incident’ and not a hate crime….Ellison mischaracterizes some of the incidents CAIR reported by calling them ‘attacks,’ exaggerating instances like hate mail by including them in the 35-number from his tweet.”

We have seen this kind of thing many times before. For years, Islamic advocacy groups such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have wildly exaggerated the incidence of anti-Muslim hate crime, often misrepresenting crimes committed by Muslims themselves as anti-Muslim hate crimes, in order to portray Muslims in the U.S. as victims of widespread persecution. In reality, FBI statistics show that Jews are twice as likely to be victims of hate crimes as Muslims.

Ellison is no better. Keith Ellison has spoken at a convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Yet ISNA has actually admitted its ties to Hamas, which styles itself the Palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Justice Department actually classified ISNA among entities “who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood.”

It gets worse. In 2008, Ellison accepted $13,350 from the Muslim American Society (MAS) to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Muslim American Society is a Muslim Brotherhood organization: “In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation’s major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.” That’s from the Chicago Tribune in 2004, in an article that is now carried on the Muslim Brotherhood’s English-language website, Ikhwanweb.

Also, CAIR raised large amounts of for Ellison’s first campaign, and he has spoken at numerous CAIR events.

So when someone like Keith Ellison claims a sharp rise in attacks against mosques, one must consider the larger strategy: to paint a picture of Muslims as being harassed and persecuted in the U.S., and deserving of law enforcement protection, not law enforcement scrutiny. If that strategy succeeds, the jihad will be able to advance unopposed and unimpeded, with no one daring to say a negative word about the poor victims. Until, that is, it is far, far too late.